Philip Morris Fined and a Lobbyist Is Barred Over Violations of Ethics Rules

By PAUL ZIELBAUER

Published: April 11, 2000

HARTFORD, April 10—
Five months after New York State fined Philip Morris and imposed a three-year ban against its chief Albany lobbyist for violating the state's lobbying laws, Connecticut's Ethics Commission announced today that it had taken similar action against the same tobacco company and lobbyist.

Under an agreement signed last Wednesday by Philip Morris and its lobbyist, Sharon T. Portnoy, the company agreed to pay a $20,000 penalty, and Ms. Portnoy was to pay $4,000 and abide by a one-year ban from lobbying Connecticut lawmakers. Ms. Portnoy is the first lobbyist in Connecticut to be banned for violating the state's comparatively strict ethical guidelines.

In November, after an investigation by New York's state ethics commission, Philip Morris paid the state a $75,000 fine, and Ms. Portnoy paid a $15,000 fine and was barred from lobbying in Albany for three years.

Connecticut's penalty against Philip Morris was imposed primarily because the company failed to properly itemize and fully report money it paid to Ms. Portnoy and its top Connecticut lobbyists, Clem Roy and Craig LeRoy, a high-level aide to Gov. John G. Rowland from 1997 to 1999. The company has said its violations were not intentional.

Ms. Portnoy's punishment was primarily for falsifying the amount she spent on five meals for three Connecticut lawmakers during out-of-state conferences in Philadelphia, Honolulu and San Antonio in 1997 and 1998, said Brenda M. Bergeron, an Ethics Commission lawyer.

None of the three lawmakers violated any state lobbying laws, though Ms. Portnoy misled them about how much their meals cost, state officials said.

In 1997, for example, Ms. Portnoy reported paying $122 for two dinners she bought for state Representative Hector A. Diaz, a Democrat from Bridgeport, at Deux Cheminees, a restaurant in Philadelphia, and Bali by the Sea, in Hawaii. But the two meals actually cost $186.06, in excess of the $150 annual limit the state allowed lobbyists to spend on lawmakers in 1997, Ms. Bergeron said.

Similarly, in 1998, Ms. Portnoy reported paying $72.37 for a meal for Representative Minnie Gonzalez, a Democrat from Hartford, at Mansion del Rio, a restaurant in San Antonio, even though the bill was actually $84.43. That same year, Ms. Portnoy reported paying $145.57 for two meals for Representative John S. Martinez, a Democrat from New Haven, even though both cost $185.09.

In 1998, the state lowered the annual amount a lawmaker can accept in meals from lobbyists to $50 from $150, and Representatives Gonzalez and Martinez paid back the amount Ms. Portnoy told them they owed, Ms. Bergeron said, to stay under those limits.

Alan S. Plofsky, the Ethics Commission's executive director, said Ms. Portnoy was not aware that she was violating the law. ''She apparently didn't even know what the law was in Connecticut,'' he said. ''She paid little or no attention to our laws.''